Tokyo 2020 Olympics in turmoil as Trump looks to Japan

Britain wants the International Olympic Committee to make a definitive decision soon on whether the summer Olympics should go ahead, Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman said. "We want the International Olympic Committee to make a definitive decision soon to bring clarity to all of those involved," the spokesman said. "Athletes are facing significant uncertainty in the current environment. Their health and safety, alongside that of sports fans and officials due to work at the Games must be absolutely paramount."

US President Donald Trump said the United States would "be guided" by Japan's decision over whether to hold the Tokyo 2020 Olympics amid the global coronavirus outbreak as Canada, Australia quit the Summer Games. "We will be guided by the wishes of Prime Minister Abe of Japan, a great friend of the United States and a man who has done a magnificent job on the Olympic Venue, as to attending the Olympic Games in Japan. He will make the proper decision!" Trump tweeted.

The Olympics rings are up and the cute wide-eyed mascots are plastered across billboards and commuter trains, but people in Tokyo are increasingly convinced the Games won't happen this summer. For many in Tokyo, after a steady drumbeat about the pandemic that has now infected more than 325,000 people and killed over 14,400 worldwide, the Games seem impossible to hold in July. "There is no way we can hold it," 75-year-old Noriko Shuzui said as she shopped in Tokyo's Ginza district on Monday. "Even if Japan had overcome the virus, if the world hadn't we would receive no athletes, no spectators. No way we can do it."

Argentine sailor Santiago Lange said the International Olympic Committee (IOC) deserves more time to decide on potentially postponing the Tokyo Games but the well-being of athletes should be a top priority as the coronavirus pandemic spreads. "It's a moment to be together and I think the only solution is to take the decision day-by-day and to cancel the Games, we still have time," Lange, who is bidding for a seventh Olympic appearance, said. "I'm absolutely sure that the International Olympic Committee, the government of Japan or organisation in Japan (TOCOG) plus the international health association (WHO) will not let the Olympics happen if there is any risk by any of the participants."

World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe has written a letter to International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach, calling in postponement of Tokyo Olympic Games amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. In his letter, Coe has said that an Olympics in July 2020 is "neither feasible or desirable" because of the coronavirus crisis, reports BBC Sport. "No-one wants to see the Olympic Games postponed but as I have said publicly, we cannot hold the event at all costs, certainly not at the cost of athlete safety, and a decision on the Olympic Games must become very obvious very quickly. "I believe that time has come and we owe it to our athletes to give them respite where we can," the letter stated.

A group representing track and field athletes has called for the Tokyo Olympics to be postponed because of the coronavirus outbreak. The Athletics Association's statement comes a day after the International Olympic Committee set itself a four-week deadline to decide on a delay. Athletics Association president Christian Taylor and vice president Emma Coburn say ``we're imploring the IOC to announce the postponement of Tokyo 2020 Olympics much sooner than in four weeks' time.'' Taylor is a long jumper and Coburn (pictured) is a runner. Both competed for the United States at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

Too long of a delay to the Olympic Games would be a burden to athletes preparing for the Tokyo 2020 games, the president of the Japan Olympic Committee said on Monday. Yasuhiro Yamashita made the comment at a news conference on Monday, as speculation deepened that Japan would be forced to delay the Olympics because of the widening coronavirus outbreak.

Japan plans to tell the International Olympic Committee that the nation is ready to accept a delay to the Tokyo Olympics if decided.

Japan's Olympic minister Seiko Hashimoto told reporters on Monday that the Japanese leg of the Olympic torch relay for the summer Games, scheduled to start from Fukushima Prefecture on Thursday, will go ahead as planned despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Hashimoto remarks confirming the Japanese leg of the torch relay came as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe hinted at the possibility that the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympic Games could be postponed this summer if they could not be held in their complete form.

The Chinese Olympic Committee is unlikely to follow the example of their Canadian counterparts and withdraw from this summer's Tokyo Olympics, a former high-ranking official was quoted as saying on Monday as opposition to holding the event grows. The global outbreak of the coronavirus prompted the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) and Paralympic Committee (CPC) to call for the Games to be postponed. They said Team Canada would not participate if the event went ahead this year. But Wei Jizhong, the former general secretary of the Chinese Olympic Committee and a vice president of the Olympic Council of Asia, believes China will not publicly withdraw and will instead stick to the line presented by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). "The Chinese Olympic Committee will follow the IOC," Wei told the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong.

In light of the coronavirus, Olympics Federation of Ireland president Sarah Keane has said: "It appears 2020 Olympic games likely to be postponed."

The Australian Olympic Committee is advising its athletes to prepare for an Olympics in 2021. Ian Chesterman, Australia's team leader for Tokyo, on Monday said "It's clear the games can't be held in July" because of the coronavirus pandemic. "Our athletes have been magnificent in their positive attitude to training and preparing, but the stress and uncertainty has been extremely challenging for them," Chesterman said in a statement. "They have also shouldered the burden of concern for their peers around the world. That has been a consistent message to me.''

The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) and Paralympic Committee (CPC) said on Sunday that Team Canada would not be participating in the Olympic and Paralympic Games in the summer of 2020. "The COC and CPC urgently call on the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to postpone the Games for one year and we offer them our full support in helping navigate all the complexities that rescheduling the Games will bring," the committees said in a statement. "While we recognize the inherent complexities around a postponement, nothing is more important than the health and safety of our athletes and the world community," it added.

The Olympics will not be cancelled, according to Yoshiro Mori, the Tokyo 2020 chief. However, he did admit postponement is one scenario being considered. Mori continued his defiant stance in the face of calls to call off the Games, saying Japan was "not considering cancelling the Olympics at all".

- The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) said on Monday it could not assemble a team for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics due to the coronavirus outbreak and that its athletes should prepare for the Games to be postponed to 2021.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said for the first time on Monday that the Tokyo Olympic Games may need to be postponed if the event cannot be held in its "complete form" due to the coronavirus pandemic. The IOC said on Sunday after an emergency meeting that it is stepping up its "scenario planning" for the 2020 Games due to start on July 24, including a possible postponement.